1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a regional symmetric and interlocked traffic light control method, and more particularly to a regional traffic light control method for reducing traffic jams in a plurality of traffic jam control areas for at least two adjacent regions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently, traffic lights are commonly used for many intersection in metropolitan areas to control traffic for both vehicles and pedestrians.
A typical traffic light control method for a metropolitan area controls a series of traffic lights along the same direction for a predetermined distance to display a green light or a red light continuously. Therefore, regardless of the traveling speeds of any vehicle, it will have to stop at a red light, which increases travel times. Moreover, when a large number of vehicles all stop and wait for a red light, serious air and noise pollution problems are consequently generated, and which also causes traffic jams.
In order to control traffic at an intersection having two axial traffic directions, according to statistics, the vehicle on each street needs to spend at least half of its travel time waiting for red lights. Furthermore, in general, a typical car with a full tank of gas can run about 500 km on highways but only 220 km in cities; in other words, about 56% of the fuel is wasted, which is a tremendous waste of energy.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a regional traffic light control method for reducing metropolitan traffic jams so as to mitigate and/or obviate the aforementioned problems.